Kidnapping Erza

By CrimsonStarbird


Chapter Twelve: Breaking Bridges

Like most organized sports, the Twenty-Four-Hour Endurance Road Race had rules. Unlike most organized sports, however, the group in charge of its organization was Fairy Tail, which meant that said rules were at all times subservient to the general guiding principle of Makarov's guild: anything goes.

Although the race itself was not scheduled to begin until midday, many participants had started preparing the moment Makarov finished his announcement: in a guild-wide event such as this, scheming was par for the course. For Levy in particular, the competition began with a knock on her door at around five minutes to midnight.

She had been in bed just finishing the chapter of her book at the time, and at the unexpected sound, she slipped a bookmark into the volume, threw her dressing gown over her pyjamas, and drew back the bolt. She was expecting to find one of the other girls standing there, most likely Lucy, looking for last-minute advice about the upcoming race. She was certainly not expecting to find herself staring into the face of a certain councillor-turned-Fairy-Tail-mage.

Levy blinked up at him twice before concluding he wasn't a figment of her imagination, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Let me in," Jellal said, and then, as if that had somehow been an invitation from her to him rather than just an order on his part, he brushed past her and entered the room.

"Hey- hey!" she demanded indignantly. "What do you think you're doing? Didn't I tell you what would happen if you dared to come near the girls' dorms again? Do you want me to call the police?"

He ignored her threats, leaning casually up against one of the many bookcases and folding his arms. "Tell me what the route is for the race tomorrow."

After a long moment, Levy let out a deep sigh, and closed the door to her room. "I can't. I do think the Master is being a bit unfair to you, but, you know, I can't really go against his direct instruction…"

"I didn't say I wanted you to help me for nothing," Jellal overrode her coolly.

It was then that she noticed the leather strap of a satchel stretching from his shoulder to the opposite hip – an unusual accessory for the Wizard Saint, who liked to travel as light as possible so that he was ready to fight at the drop of a hat. Keeping her voice as steady as possible, so as not to betray her hopes, she inquired, "Brought something to trade, have you?"

"I have indeed."

Her eyes lit up as he reached into the satchel and pulled out something definitely book-shaped. Rosy lacrima light danced along a binding of scaled hide; flashed from the gold-printed calligraphy upon the spine. She breathed, "Is that… no, it can't be. Is it? It is, isn't it?"

"It is. A History of Society as the History of Magic, the original edition – and I'll lend it to you for a week, if you help me."

"I have always wanted to read that! Getting hold of a copy is practically impossible these days! It was banned within an hour of publication, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yes. It argues – argues brilliantly – that the development of our entire civilization can be reduced to the choices and actions of the ten percent of the population who have manifested magic. Even for the Magic Council, that was a bit much." He shrugged; the political implications were of little relevance to him. "To anyone who has actually read it, it's clear that it really is nothing more than a genuine history, rather than a manifesto for the domination of mages over non-mages, but it has obviously been interpreted as such, so you can't really fault the Council's decision there. Besides, you simply can't accurately describe the history of our society in that way. But for all its failings, it remains a fantastic metahistory; the best I've ever read. Nothing else even comes close. Subject matter aside, it would have revolutionized the entire way we look at history, if the Council had allowed it to be published."

"Hmm…"

It wasn't as though she couldn't see what he was doing – how carefully he was watching for her reactions; how casually he was selecting his words to play most effectively on her interests. Still, it was probably more a force of habit than anything else. They both knew he had won from the moment she admitted she felt sorry for him; since she had let him speak rather than following through on her threat to throw him out of the building. He continued simply because he could.

"It's an original copy as well – one of the fifteen produced by the printer before the Rune Knights raided the place, rather than one of the incomplete versions assembled later from manuscript fragments. It's a hundred years old, and in perfect condition. The Council think I have it, so don't do anything stupid like parading around with it in a public place and getting arrested. I've gone to a lot of trouble for you here, Levy, so you'd better not let me down."

"I know how to be careful!" she objected. "I haven't been caught yet, have I?"

"I don't think that's the sort of thing you should be saying to a member of the Magic Council," he pointed out, with raised eyebrows.

"Oh, shush," she retorted, reaching out for the book.

Jellal made to hand it to her, only to pull it back at the last minute. "Tell me about the road race."

"…Fine," she conceded. "I'll tell you everything."


Eleven-thirty the following morning found the entire guild dutifully – or perhaps fearfully, when it came to this special punishment of Makarov's – assembled outside the guildhall. Considering the last-minute nature of the event, an impressive number of townsfolk had also gathered to watch the start of the race. Even a reporter from the Weekly Sorcerer magazine was there, flitting between the contestants and the crowd, collecting the best gossip and working out the odds on the most likely victor. An inflatable arch had been erected to double as the start and finish line, and it was around this that the hundred or so guild mages swarmed, with attitudes ranging from thoroughly excited to unhappily nervous.

Lucy was very much towards the latter end of that spectrum. The day was bright and sunny; a relief to many but a disappointment to her, who had secretly harboured the hope that a freak rainstorm might have prompted the Master to cancel the event. Then again, knowing him, he would probably have made them go ahead with it anyway, so perhaps the mild temperature and cloudless skies were for the best.

Endurance running wasn't something Lucy was particularly good at. Well, to be more accurate, it wasn't something she had ever seriously tried before, but her experience with other kinds of running was enough to put her off. She had a good level of physical fitness, as it was practically a requirement for all practising mages, but there was a difference between being able to hold her own in a prolonged magical battle and running for twenty-four hours straight.

She had spent all night worrying that everyone was going to be as fired-up as Natsu, all professional sportswear and bare muscles and ridiculous levels of enthusiasm. And of course there were people like that. Gray wasn't about to be outdone by Natsu, and had already stripped down to his underwear in order to save time on trying to do it while running. The two boys were currently managing to perform calm warm-up stretches and loudly trash-talk each other at the same time.

Erza was the same, though fortunately she was above trying to intimidate the opposition, and even more fortunately, she had elected to keep all her clothes on. She was dressed in comfortable jogging gear which showed off her enviably athletic frame, while a sweat band swept her hair out of her eyes.

Similarly, even though he was stood apart from everyone else, who kept their distance in mutual distrust, Gajeel was clearly prepared to take this event as seriously as any of them. It was his first time participating in anything as a Fairy Tail mage, so it offered a way for him to make a good impression upon the rest of his new guild.

And then there was Jellal… and it was impossible to even look at him without becoming completely demoralized. As he had promised, he was here to win. He was equipped with full combat gear: tracksuit trousers enabling full manoeuvrability, and a sleek black sleeveless top that showed off his frankly ridiculous physique. Every inch of him rippled with energy. He was intense and focussed; the apathetic, perpetually grumpy councillor who could normally be found around the guildhall had vanished, and in his place was the man who had triumphed over an enemy who had got the better of the entire rest of the guild. He was terrifying, he was incredible, and Lucy, who didn't even own any sports gear and so had turned up dressed in an old t-shirt and a pair of shorts, had never felt more out of place in her life.

Fortunately, not everyone in the guild was quite that crazy. As Lucy studied the mages milling around by the start line, relief began to creep into her posture. Many were simply wearing old clothes like she was. Some were carrying portable music players, some had maps, and a surprising number of them shouldered backpacks – out of place in an official sporting event, perhaps, but not at all in one hosted by Fairy Tail.

And that, she supposed, was what Levy meant when she had assured her, "Anything goes."


"Does the Master really expect us to run for twenty-four hours straight?" Lucy had asked her bleakly, when they were preparing the evening before. "I don't think that's physically possible…"

Fortunately, Levy had been able to cheerfully reassure her. "Don't worry. Twenty-four hours is a reasonable target for the route he gives us. If you ran it solidly with no breaks, you could probably do it in about eighteen hours. Maybe sixteen; maybe even less, for some people in the guild. Jet can do it in four, but why the Master hasn't banned his magic from the race, I have no idea…

"Most people will take twenty-two, twenty-three hours over it. Going that long without eating is bad enough, let alone when you're constantly moving, so most people will either take provisions with them and stop to eat when they feel like a break, or take money instead and drop in at a convenience store or fast-food place to grab snacks as they go. Likewise, it's not at all unusual for people to stop for a nap when it gets to around midnight. This could entail camping somewhere along the trail, or, if you time it right, there are a couple of pretty cheap hotels along the route. So you'll also get people who'll bring along a sleeping bag, or a change of clothes; that sort of thing.

"It depends how you want to play it really, Lucy. You can take it seriously, race to win, and go through one hell of an exhausting day, or you can take it easy, just do enough to keep up with the main pack, bring along the luxuries you're prepared to carry, and not have too bad a time of it."

"What do you normally do?" Lucy had asked in trepidation.

"Me? Well… I know that in a straight physical competition, I'm no match for Erza or Natsu. On the other hand, in a race involving the entire guild, where there is basically no limit on magic usage and we're running in the real world where all kinds of uncontrollable external factors are in play… anything can happen. I'm going to travel light, make sure I have plenty of cash on me, and play it by ear."

"…You know, I was really hoping you were going to say that you were happy taking it easy."

"That is what I did last year, I'll admit. Droy and I jogged in the middle of the pack the entire way. But, with everything that's happened recently… I don't want to lag behind any more. I'm going to give it my all."

"I know, I know. I'll do my best too, but…" There were some things Lucy was cut out for, and some things she was not. Competing against her fellow guild mages in an endurance race was definitely the latter kind. "It's kind of hard to find any motivation at all when I know I don't stand a chance in something like this."

"Ah, but you don't know that. In this race, very few things are explicitly banned. The trick is to think outside the box. I told you that Jet can run the whole course in a quarter of the time it takes someone like Natsu, right? You'd think he'd be guaranteed victory, but he lost once, three years ago."

"How could he possibly have lost?"

"As I said, as a general guideline, anything goes in the road race. You can make use of anything you find along the way: food stands, hotels, vehicles… ah, you see now, don't you? The rules concerning vehicles were a little different back then – the only restriction was that you couldn't bring your own. Well, the race began as usual, but the moment we made it to the next city, Mira disappeared in the town centre… and reappeared a few minutes later, having rented a motorbike from a shop she used to visit often. She completed the course in just over two hours. Needless to say, after that incident, the Master modified the rules to ban all personal vehicles, whether rented or owned, including carriages and magic-propelled cars."

"Personal vehicles?"

"Privately owned ones. The use of public transport, on the other hand, is very much encouraged. There aren't any train routes running close enough to the course to be of any help, but that just means you have to get a little creative," Levy had added, with a slightly unnerving smile. "That's the thing. As long as you touch the halfway point and return, you're free to interpret the parts in between however you like. Even 'running' is more a suggestion than an actual rule. The usual route that most people take, for example, heads straight through a major city called Albrecht, which has a pretty neat tram system going from one edge of the city to the other. It's not fast – probably slower than jogging it, to be honest, especially if you have to wait for the tram to arrive – but if you time it right and reach the terminal just as it's about to leave, it's a great way to sit down and rest, and even eat, without losing much time."

"You know," Lucy had said, after a long and thoughtful pause, "The more I learn about this road race, the more worried I become. As if the sheer amount of running isn't bad enough, there's all this strategy to contend with as well…"

And Levy had just clapped her on the back in a manner that was probably supposed to be supportive. "You can do it, Lucy."

"Yeah…"


"Lucy!"

The sound of Levy's real voice, rather than its echo in Lucy's memory, dragged her back to the present. A quick scan of the crowd allowed her to quickly pinpoint the short girl, who was pushing her way towards her friend.

As Lucy had been expecting, Levy was wearing loose-fitting, comfortable clothes – a vest top and short shorts, in the bright summer colours she favoured. After their discussion, however, Lucy had very much not been expecting her friend to rock up dragging a cart with her.

But that was indeed what was accompanying Levy: an old wooden cart, not quite reaching as high as her hips, a couple of feet wide and around twice as long, and supported by four sturdy wheels. It was stacked full of supplies, ranging from an elaborate picnic set, complete with crockery and a hamper, to what looked like a small tent. Even a couple of books were tucked down the side. A short rope was attached to the front of the cart, the other end of which was thrown over Levy's shoulder to allow her to pull the entire contraption along. She was already puffing and panting under the weight of it, and the race hadn't even started yet.

"Umm, Levy…" Lucy glanced from her friend to the cart she was pulling, and then back to Levy's wide grin. "What?"

"Strategy!"

"But, Levy…" She shook her head in disbelief. "Yesterday, you told me that you were serious about competing, and that you like to travel light for the race. So why on earth have you packed enough stuff for a week-long camping holiday?"

Levy beckoned for her to lean in close, and whispered her response in an undertone. "Don't tell anyone, but all that equipment is just to throw people off the scent. I'm ditching it as soon as we're out of sight of the main pack. The cart's the important thing, and I don't want people figuring that out."

"I don't think anyone's going to figure that out, don't worry…"

"Anyway, Lucy, I came to see you because I wanted to propose a partnership. It's your first race, and I honestly think I'm going to need a little help to pull off this plan, because the cart is heavier than I thought – so how about we form a team and work together?"

"A team? We're just running; why do we need to be in a team?"

Levy gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, Lucy. Weren't you listening to anything yesterday? There are two ways to win the road race: with brawn, or with brains. Now, if you want to try and out-brawn the likes of Natsu and Gray, you can be my guest. But if you want to even the odds a little, then fight smart, and help me drag this goddamn cart."

"I…" Well, it couldn't make things any worse, could it? "Alright, fine, let's team up. But first you've got to tell me why we need the cart. And isn't it against the vehicle rules, anyway?"

"Nah, I checked with the Master and it's fine, since there's no way of propelling it other than by dragging it along. And we need it because it's our weapon. Siegrain has a plan and I'm pretty sure I've worked out what that plan is, and this cart is the means by which we're going to stay one step ahead of him."

Both of them glanced around for the man Levy had mentioned. He hadn't moved from his position close to start line, his hands in his pockets as he surveyed his competition. The fierce icy aura he was emitting dissuaded anyone, spectator or competitor, from getting too close. He did not have a cart with him. In fact, he did not appear to have anything on his person at all, leading Lucy to wonder what on earth this plan of his was supposed to be – and then a thought occurred to her.

"Hang on, Levy. How can Siegrain possibly have a plan to win the race when he didn't even know the route until the Master officially announced it a few minutes ago?"

"Ah." Levy glanced away sheepishly. "I, uh, may have told him the route last night."

"Why?" Lucy demanded, more surprised than outraged. But of course, when it came to her friend, it was never that difficult to guess. "Levy, did he bribe you with a rare book?"

"It wasn't a bribe! It was… a business deal. You know, an exchange of assets."

"Levy…"

"Hey, life's not going to end when this race does, you know? Give it three days, and everyone in the guild will have completely forgotten that this road race even happened. I, on the other hand, will still have the book he lent me. It's about thinking ahead, Lucy. That's all."

"Alright, alright…" Lucy conceded, trying to suppress a smile. "You've done a complete one-eighty on that man since we caught him sneaking around in Erza's room, haven't you? Two weeks ago, you hated him."

"Oh, I still think he's a pervert. But he's also pretty interesting to have around, so as far as I'm concerned, as long as he doesn't do anything inappropriate, and tries to act more like a decent human being, it all kind of balances out. Besides, you can't talk. You're trying to get him and Erza together, aren't you?"

"I, uh… might be."

They exchanged knowing looks. Erza was their friend; they both wanted to look out for her, and they both wanted her to be happy. Now was neither the time nor the place for this discussion, however, and Levy dived in with a brisk change of subject before things got too serious.

"Ah, it looks like the Master's getting us to line up for the start of the race. Right, Lucy. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to run with everyone else at the start of the race; you, me, plus cart. We'll follow the normal route through Magnolia until we get out of the city and to the crossroads. Now, most people will go straight on at the crossroads, as that's the most direct road to the halfway point. We, however, are going to jump into the bushes and hide until everyone else has gone past. We're then going to empty the cart – I'll come back to pick the stuff up after the race – and take the left-hand fork at the crossroads, so that we can drag the cart up to the top of Lookout Hill."

"Lookout Hill?" Lucy frowned; if she remembered correctly, that was the name given informally to one of the largest hills near the city, where once upon a time a watchtower had been stationed. "That's miles out of our way!"

"Trust me, Lucy. It's all part of the plan."

"If you say so…"

And so Lucy found herself trailing despondently behind a chirpy Levy and her incomprehensible cart as they joined everyone else at the start line, wondering what on earth she had got herself into this time.


"Ready, set… go!"

As the Master's shout rang out across the expectant crowd, the mages at the start line burst into life. Anticipation and an utterly irrational enthusiasm became pure energy, which promptly – because this was Fairy Tail – dissolved into chaos.

Jellal had been repeatedly reminded in the minutes leading up to the race that while the use of almost any kind of magic was allowed, attacking other competitors without provocation was frowned upon, and turning the race into a brawl by immediately trying to start a fight would get him disqualified. While winning the 'race' by rendering all his opponents unable to walk through injury was an appealing thought, he didn't particularly fancy taking on the entire guild at once, especially when some of his opponents would likely escape in the ensuing melee. No, he had no intention of starting a fight right from the outset.

Not that his lack of intervention meant a free-for-all didn't start itself. With so many mages packed into one tight space, all employing their magic on the same signal to fight their way through the crowd in front of them, degeneration of the orderly starting line-up into sheer madness took all of about three seconds.

Those who had experience with the road race were prepared for the anarchy to hit, and had made it their business to get as far away as quickly as possible in order to avoid being caught up in it. Jet immediately took the lead, whose magic-fuelled acceleration of nought to 'faster than the eye can see' in point-five of a second launched anyone unlucky enough to be standing in his way straight off their feet. After that, the race's strongest contenders – Erza, Natsu and Gray – took an early lead, closely followed by Juvia, and a surprisingly fired-up Gajeel. Levy had strongly advised against Lucy's suggestion of starting off slow and pacing themselves, and was now hurtling along the road dragging the cart with one hand and Lucy with the other. Those who weren't fortunate enough to make it into the breakaway group were promptly swallowed up by the ensuing riot.

All except Jellal, that was. When the Master had started the race and the tsunami of chaos had been unleashed, he alone hadn't moved a muscle. The rest of the guild paid him no heed and surged onwards, with the result that when the brawl broke out, there was a buffer of several safe metres between him and the melee. He simply stood back behind the line with his hands in his pockets. Apart from ducking the odd stray bolt of magic that came his way, he showed no signs of motion whatsoever. Rather, he seemed content just to watch the situation unfold.

Even after the majority of mages had managed to extract themselves from the fray and set off down the road, he remained exactly where he was. Mira, who was providing commentary on the race and helping Makarov keep an eye on the competitors through the use of floating surveillance lacrima, watched him bemusedly for a few minutes, and when he still failed to make a move, she hurried over and tapped him on the shoulder. "You haven't changed your mind about running in the race, have you?"

"Not at all."

He was completely nonchalant; Mira wondered why she had expected anything else. "This is a strategy, then?"

A shrug. She figured that probably meant yes. "I didn't much fancy getting caught up in that rabble earlier, that's all."

"Fair enough. Still, I'd have thought you'd have preferred to be ahead of the fight, rather than behind it. This is only making things more difficult for you."

"Naturally. It wouldn't be much of a competition otherwise."

In all the time that they had been conversing, Jellal's eyes had not left the vanishing crowd of competitors for a moment; the lightness in his voice deliberately misrepresented how seriously he was taking the situation. He was so calm, so focussed – irrespective of the magic Mira could sense burning eagerly within him, this was the man who had become the youngest ever Wizard Saint.

As soon as the last of his opponents vanished from view, he turned to Mira and announced, "Well, if you'll excuse me, it's about time for me to head off."

And with his hands still in his pockets, he set off at a leisurely walk – down a road perpendicular to the one everybody else had just run down.

After a few startled seconds, Mira ran after him and caught him easily. "Siegrain! You do know you're going the wrong way, right?"

Completely at ease, he stopped in the middle of the road; observing her disbelief was far more fun to him than making swift progress in the race. "Wrong. I am, in fact, going precisely the right way."

She shook her head. "I know you're not very familiar with Magnolia, having only lived here for two weeks, but the route the others are taking is categorically the shortest path to the goal."

"It might be the shortest route, but that doesn't mean it's the fastest. That particular path may well turn out to be impassable."

He looked far too smug for this to be a bluff. Mira insisted, "The Master asked me to ride that route this morning, just to check that we were okay to run. It's completely clear."

"Ah, but you know how unpredictable the weather can be this time of year," he countered easily. "Freak storms, flash floods, stray meteors… anything could happen."

Mira laughed, understanding the implication at once. "I must say, I don't think stray meteors have ever been a problem in Magnolia before."

"But as you yourself said, Mira – I've only been here for two weeks."

"Astronomical phenomena are a common occurrence in Era, are they?" she teased.

"When people piss me off, they are."

There it was again – that fierce grin, that sparkling determination, that refusal to lose to anyone; a sheer free-spirited competitiveness that threw Council formalities out of the window and embraced the challenge for its own sake. It was an attitude that matched perfectly the guild mark stamped on the back of his left hand. Mira smiled to herself, and wisely decided not to share that reflection with him.

Jellal didn't care much for her observations. His thoughts were a long way away. "Well, I'd best be off. See you at the finish line." Raising a hand in farewell, he resumed his casual stroll in completely the wrong direction.


As Jellal had learned from Levy, there was no pre-set route that the runners had to follow. The rules specified that everyone had to start outside the guild, grab one of the wyvern scales that the Master had hidden in the crags to the north-west of the city, and return to the finish line outside the guildhall. As long as those three conditions were met, the rest of the route was open to geographical interpretation – and it was very much in the vein of 'anything goes'.

Levy had sketched out for him the standard route, which mostly stuck to main roads for ease of passage and went through several villages and at least one major city. While it may have been technically shorter to cut the odd corner by passing through fields and forests, the trickier terrain, the difficulty of navigation without a reliable map, and the absence of the basic amenities offered by civilization all conspired to produce a unanimous consensus that the road route was the one to take.

For the most part, there was nothing dangerous, special, or extreme about the standard route that Jellal could turn to his advantage. The length itself was the biggest obstacle. Most of the action traditionally took place within the crags that marked the halfway point of the race – by all accounts an inhospitable environment, marked by ridges prone to collapsing, perilously deep chasms, and a maze of tunnels, ledges, and natural hazards made all the more dangerous by the fact that night had usually fallen by the time the first competitors reached it. There was little he could do about that until he got there, though.

But the route did have one weak point: it crossed a major river, which bisected the plains in two. This was no tame country stream – it was the kind of river that anglers would stay well clear from even at the best of times, and was responsible for acres of flooding damage at the worst. Too turbulent for small boats, and too shallow and narrow for sturdier ones, falling into that wild water was suicide for all but the strongest swimmers.

Of course, no one had to swim the river. The route led directly to a major bridge, which connected the trading route on the near bank to the city called Albrecht on the other. With the infrastructure firmly on their side, the river wasn't a part of the course that anyone ever had to worry about. But if something were to happen to that bridge…

Well, there were other bridges, naturally. But the ferocity of the river meant that every single crossing was a massive construction project, and as such, where many tamer rivers would have footpaths across them at frequent intervals, this particular one did not. If that main bridge fell, the next nearest one was a good few hours' walk up or downstream – a diversion significant enough to put anyone who wasn't able to swim that deadly river out of the competition.

If one suspected that the bridge wasn't going to be passable, and took the diversion from the start, the time penalty would be negligible, but that was precisely why Jellal had no intention of destroying it until the frontrunners had almost reached it – nor of giving his opponents the slightest clue as to what he was up to.

And that was why, when everyone else was following the normal route along the main road from the start line to the Albrecht Bridge, he was stood instead on top of an enormous hill just outside Magnolia, while the tail end of the same deadly river wound its way along at its foot.

Save for the wildlife which inhabited the local woodland, he was completely alone. He was far enough now from the town for the distance to absorb all sounds of civilization. Before him, the steep slope of the hill, adorned with ageless fir trees and giant boulders, raced down towards the wild river's narrowest part.

He had climbed the hill at a leisurely pace, conserving as much of his energy as possible – no easy task, when the anticipation burning in his chest was pushing him to go faster and faster. He had completely recovered from his stint in the hospital, and his encounter with Laxus; in fact, having now gone two or three boring days without using any magic at all, he was ready and raring to fight. It was hard to project his usual image of calm control… and even harder to wait.

Timing was essential. If he misjudged how long it would take the others to reach the bridge, it would cost him everything. Two and a half hours, Levy had assured him, and this had been before she had picked up on his excessive interest in the bridge and become guarded; he was certain she had been completely honest about it. This was his only chance. He wasn't going to waste it.

His eyes were closed. His arms were stretched out in front of him, palms upturned, a prayer to the heavens. He listened – to the curious songs of the birds; to the rushing of the wind through the trees; to the deceptively quiet bubbling of the deadly river; to the racing of his own heartbeat. The wind seemed to wrap around him in an affectionate embrace.

The darkness was full of light, the source of his power, bright, burning, demanding that he look at it and it alone. A voice echoed from somewhere deep within, erasing all traces of the physical world; it whispered words he could not make out, but that he understood nonetheless. Above him, the firmament blazed in all its glory. Even in the middle of the afternoon, it was always visible, always to him. He called to the heavens and they answered. The magic within his body, offered up as a sacrifice, became the power to change the world.

At anything less than his full strength, he wouldn't have dared attempt a feat like this. Calling magic this powerful was dangerous enough without the added complication of using something other than his own body as the focus. Not only was the bridge an external target, but it was so far away that he couldn't even see it without a pair of binoculars. The power he could invoke would drop exponentially with the distance from his body, but he needed the range more than he needed that cataclysmic devastation right now.

After he had left Levy's room last night, a plan already forming in his mind, he hadn't gone to get some rest – no, he had gone straight to the nearest Council outpost. Engineering was hardly his specialty, but he vaguely recalled a top-secret report the Council had commissioned a few months ago investigating the potential terrorist risks posed to important pieces of infrastructure, with the aim of improving them in the future. There it was: a classified document telling him exactly where all the Albrecht Bridge's structural weak points were.

Of course, even knowing exactly where to hit the bridge, not even he could produce enough force to break it completely from this distance. But that was precisely why he'd paid it a visit straight afterwards and stuck explosives he'd stolen from the Rune Knights' store to the underneath of its most vulnerable point. The impact from his magic would trigger them remotely, and then boom. The river would do the rest. No more bridge, and an enormous time penalty for those foolish enough to believe he was just going to run with everyone else. Why make this a fair contest of speed when he could abuse his resources to guarantee himself victory instead?

Sometimes he couldn't believe they'd let someone like him join the Council.

A stray meteor, he had promised Mira, but 'stray' implied 'unpredictable', and as he rewrote the firmament's ageless song into a pattern that better suited his purposes, the flight path of this particular meteor was completely under his control. It was difficult to command at so great a distance, but by no means impossible, not when he turned his full concentration, and the full phenomenal might of his magic, to the task. His control was absolute, and his aim, even blind, was perfect. He could neither see nor hear the impact, but he did not need to; he felt the ripples racing through the magic of the heavens and knew he had succeeded.

When he opened his eyes, there was a grin affixed to his face. This was what he was truly capable of. If Fairy Tail still thought they could take him on, if Erza still thought to defy him, if Makarov still thought to interfere in his ultimate plan – let them try. They would suffer the same fate as that innocent bridge. This was the skill, the ingenuity, the power that was going to change the world.

But first, that power was going to win him this goddamn race.

As the intense concentration of magic swirling around his body faded, he felt a sudden light-headedness; if he hadn't been able to lean against a nearby tree, he would have fallen to the ground. He supposed it was only to be expected. Fortunately, he could afford to rest for a little while. Even once the other runners discovered what he had done to their bridge, it would take them hours to find another way across the river, giving him a significant lead-

"LOOK OUT BELOOOOOW!"

The exclamation shattered the serenity so suddenly that Jellal jumped a mile. Magic was already sparking at his fingertips, ready to defend him from the unexpected threat, even as he scanned his surroundings for the source of the shout.

In the next instant there was a thunderous rattle and a blur of motion, and something shot past him too quickly for the eye to see.

"…Eh?" Jellal demanded of the swirling air currents left in its wake. "What the hell was that?"

And then: "Don't tell me I've lost my lead already."

Heaving a sigh, he clapped his hands briskly to his cheeks, as if to wake himself up. He couldn't afford to take a break now if he wanted a chance of reclaiming first place. "You know," he said to himself, "Sometimes, I really really hate this guild."

And with that final lament, he set off down the hill at a run.


"Hey, Lucy!" Even though the two of them couldn't physically be sat any closer together, it still took Levy yelling at the top of her voice for the other girl to hear her over the rushing wind. "Isn't this great?"

That wasn't quite the word Lucy would have chosen, no.

She wasn't entirely sure what she had been thinking when she had agreed to help Levy haul the cart up to the top of the hill, but if she had known exactly what the other girl was planning, she would have taken her chances with the bridge. Not even in her worst nightmares had she anticipated that the road race would involve her careening down the side of the steepest hill she had ever seen at what felt like a hundred miles an hour in a rackety old cart that had definitely not been designed for human transport.

"Did you see the look on Siegrain's face as we went past him?" Levy laughed, not seeming to notice her partner's unresponsiveness. "Dragging this cart along was so worth it!"

Privately, Lucy thought Levy's laughter was bordering on hysterical, but since her life was currently in the euphoric girl's hands, she decided it was wiser not to comment. Instead, she screwed her eyes shut and tightened her grip around the wooden sides of the cart. It didn't help that Levy was clearly having the time of her life. At long last, Lucy had proof that it wasn't just the likes of Natsu and Erza who were a little too fond of dangerous situations – everyone in Fairy Tail had a screw loose.

"Levy…?" she began uncertainly.

"What's that, Lucy?" the girl yelled back. "Speak up! I can't hear you over the wind!"

The out-of-control cart hit a rock and was launched several feet into the air. Levy gave a gleeful whoop. Somehow they landed the right way up, hurtling downhill even faster than before, if that were possible; Lucy closed her eyes and waited for her stomach to return to its proper place before giving voice to her concerns.

"Does this cart have any brakes?"

Ideally, Levy would have turned around and given her friend an exasperated look, but since the cramped confines of the box made that impossible, she had to settle for using the most patronizing tone she could muster. "Lucy, it's a box on wheels. Does it look like it has any brakes?"

"How are we going to stop?"

"We're not going to stop. That's the whole point."

"…Right. Only, I can't help but notice that there's a massive river at the foot of this hill, and we're heading straight for it."

"We're going to jump the river!"

"…"

"…"

"…Oh my God, we're going to die."

"Nah, I've got this all worked out. I'll make us a ramp with Solid Script, and we'll fly straight over the river and take the lead! What do you think? Pretty smart, huh?"

"I'm thinking that I always knew this guild was going to be the death of me, and I should have left while I had the chance."

"Oh, Lucy," Levy grinned, and then the river was right in front of them, and the ground was far behind, and anything else that might have happened was lost to Lucy as she clung onto her friend and tried not to think about death.


A/N: Okay, so my naïve hope of wrapping up this race in a single chapter didn't last very long. But I felt as though the race needed more rules. Or fewer rules, depending on how you look at it. Jellal isn't remotely interested in a fair competition when he can ensure his victory through a typically over-complicated scheme, though his actions are well within the race's guidelines (if not *quite* within the law. At least when Fairy Tail destroys vital pieces of infrastructure, it tends to be by accident. But hey, everything's expendable when you're going to destroy the world anyway!). And Lucy and Levy were so much fun to write here; they really ran away with this chapter. Ah well. More race next week. And maybe there'll be some actual running this time... ~CS